


growing pains

by calebwidogast



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, how she was raised and how she could change after everything, ive been thinking a lot about what azula did and what she deserved, obvs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25101838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calebwidogast/pseuds/calebwidogast
Summary: trust is not easy to come by in zuko and azula's family.a vague look at what a redemption arc could look like for azula.
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar), mainly the rebuilding of
Comments: 16
Kudos: 179





	growing pains

zuko starts training with azula against pretty much everyone’s advice. even aang says, “i just… worry. how can you trust her?”

he tells him honestly, “i don’t.”

he wants to. it’s his  _ sister _ , for crying out loud. he thinks of katara, just as ambitious, probably just as traumatized in different ways, and the way she and sokka would go to war for one another.  _ had _ gone to war for one another. of course he wants that. but he’s not stupid enough to think that she’s there.

“do you want me or katara n-”

“aang, i definitely don’t want katara there. n-not because it’s her- well, kind of because it’s her. the agni kai is the last time azula saw her.” zuko tells him.

aang blanches. “oh, yeah. uh- sorry.”

“it’s okay. she hasn’t… said anything about her. she doesn’t roll her eyes anymore when i remind her not to call katara or sokka ‘peasants’. she lets me correct her when she calls you ‘the avatar’ instead of ‘aang’.” zuko shrugs. “it just doesn’t seem like a good plan to have someone proving that i don’t trust her.”

“but you don’t.” aang says-almost-asks.

“i want to.” zuko says. “she’s my sister.” he doesn’t say,  _ i’m all she has left. _

so two afternoons later, he and azula stand in an empty courtyard, both so much more exhausted than they had been before. before  _ what _ , he meant exactly, he wasn’t sure. but still- before.

“how’s therapy been?” zuko asks kindly.

“how was your sixth meeting in the past two days?” azula snarks back.

“point taken.” zuko sighs. “let’s just… work up through beginner stuff. to warm up. no firebending, yet, okay?”

azula sniffs. “i’m not a child- if you’re going to pretend to be my instructor, just instruct. i don’t need all the niceties you did.”

“fine. just work through the first basic katas.” zuko says, trying hard not to let his frustration show. he turns so she’s mostly in his peripheral and begins running through the katas on his own, the motions flowing together as he focuses on the ground beneath him, the sun beating down from above him.

when he looks he finds that azula’s katas are pristine, even now, after a stagnant few months. zuko can’t help but watch and remember how quickly she surpassed him when they were young. he’s snapped out of it as she says, finally, “well? is three run-throughs enough, or do you want more,  _ sifu _ ?”

“one more. really think about how the sun’s heating the stone beneath your feet.” zuko says, only halfway because she had taunted him.

she runs through the set and ends it turned to look directly at him, her foot pointed out in front of her. “i know to focus on the sun.”

“i said focus on the way the stone feels.” zuko says. he thinks back to something uncle told him and how azula is so light on her feet and parrots, “maintain your root.”

“i already know you’re too afraid to knock me over.” azula tells him plainly. she switches to a different kata, shifting her weight toward him onto her leading leg. “that i’ll snap on you.”

“then do it.” zuko says, and moves so quickly he surprises himself a little. he twists around her in a move aang would be proud of and then kicks out a few times to unbalance her before just shoving her with the heels of his hands in a way that maybe aang wouldn’t think was so well executed.

she falls in a frustrated heap, but instead of rushing to her feet, she glares up at him. something in her expression softens in a way zuko can’t figure out for just a second before she composes it again. “so four run-throughs of katas means actual training?”

he can’t help the laugh that she’s startled out of him. “i guess that’s a good starting point.”

\---

“i want to know how you did it.”

she says it out of the blue one day in the courtyard as they run through katas and trade mostly friendly blows.

“...how i fell on my ass?” zuko asks, because she says it as he’s getting up from her knocking him over with a trick she learned from him that he had learned from aang.

“no, dum-dum. that was obvious; you lack tactical sense. i meant redirecting my lightning.” azula says. “how did you do it?”

and suddenly zuko is standing back in the plaza, staring a wild-eyed azula down. lightning crackles to life in her hands. “i-”

“you don’t trust me.” she says, and now zuko is back in the courtyard with her and the expression on her face isn’t even angry. it almost seems… tired.

zuko holds her gaze a moment more and then looks down. “no. no, i don’t.”

she keeps her composure, just sniffing disdainfully as she crosses her arms. “i suppose you would want to keep it secret. it’s the one thing you can do better.”

it hurts. he doesn’t want to snap back at her, to rise to the bait, but all he’s been able to think about during their afternoons training is that even now, her katas are precise and it just reminds him of being an angry kid. he bites back his anger and growls, “you should ask uncle yourself if you’re so interested.”

azula lets out a bitter laugh. “zuko, even if i could leave to visit him, when has uncle ever helped me?”

zuko stops in his tracks. he fumbles for a response, but suddenly all he can see is uncle following him into banishment, leaving azula alone with their father at just eleven. he opens his mouth for the third time, but azula cuts him off.

“i know he couldn’t be in two places at once. i know how much you remind him of our cousin. i must have seemed the more unfavorable option. i don’t really blame him.” azula says as she crosses her arms. it reminds zuko of the time on ember island- she says something that has to hurt, but frames it like it can’t even pretend to touch her.

the silence between them is heavy.

“you deserved better.” zuko says, finally. he’s not as eloquent as most people expect the firelord to be, but he knows what he wants her to hear. “not just from him. from the world. from- from mother. i won’t pretend that father could have ever been better, but i wish he had been. for both of us.”

azula rolls her eyes. “it’s not even worth comparing the way father treated us.”

suddenly he feels the most like a protective older brother that he ever has, and wonders offhand if this is anything like the way sokka feels about katara. “if your therapists are telling you that then i’m going to have them fired. you had to watch what happened to me and know that you had no choice but to be a prodigy. he was wrong when he told you that you were born the lucky one.” zuko snaps. “i wasn’t the only one that suffered because of him. we both feared him.”

the silence returns. azula looks uncomfortable in a way that zuko can’t place, and he hates it. instead of apologizing, he just asks, “so, who do i need to fire?”

there’s the barest hint of a smile on azula’s face as she says, almost uncharacteristically quietly, “none of them taught me that, but you could fire the one that nags me about eating my breakfast in bed.”

“or you could just stop telling him when you do.” zuko offers.

“i suppose i could.” azula says thoughtfully.

\---

zuko refused the firelord’s chambers, so he’s in the chambers that used to be uncle’s. azula has her old room. they both ignore his old room as an entity, but azula snipes comments at him about how tradition must not matter to him and he rolls his eyes so hard his head starts to hurt. zuko asks her if she wants a new set of traditional formal robes and she fake gags so hard she actually almost throws up.

they train every other day.

time goes on and azula doesn’t even nag him about adding actual firebending to the routine.

they get along most days, which everyone including zuko is surprised about.

uncle visits for a month and azula seems somehow more subdued and more like before at the same time.

“uncle,” zuko says one day, pulling him aside to the garden. “i’m not asking you to explain anything to me, but… azula is hurting. you helped me grow, and she needs your help. she didn’t get it before because you were helping me. she’s been doing so well, but she…”

“i understand.” uncle said, lowering his gaze to his own clasped hands. “i will talk with her. i think that i owe her the answers to whatever questions she may have.”

they talk in the garden, too, and zuko watches uncle turn away several guards (who seem to sense a fight brewing) with such a passion that azula’s composed expression twitches.

“scram, zuzu.” azula snaps after the guards have gone. “i’m a big kid now, i’ll be alright.”

and it is. they aren’t best friends at the end of it, but they seem to have come to some understanding. they don’t talk often, and when uncle leaves azula doesn’t see him off. but she’s her new level of touchy, not the level of touchy from before, so she must have heard what she needed to know.

they train every other day and they talk and sometimes it almost feels like they’re the same people they were before zuko was banished, or even before their mother disappeared.

it’s strange, but he’s glad for it.

\---

azula asks, “how is mai?”

the two of them sit in the center of the courtyard, and until she spoke they had been meditating in silence.

“uh.” zuko says intelligently.

“did you break up, finally?” azula asks.

zuko, startled into silence, just nods. it takes him a moment to finally say, “we broke up when- before the day of black sun.”

azula says, “oh.” like he’s just given her a puzzle to put together. “hm.”

“what?”

“i’m… sorry. i know that she probably doesn’t want to see me ever again, which, who cares, but i would tell her too if i could. sorry. for pushing you two like i have been since we were kids.”

the fact that  _ azula _ is apologizing takes the wind right out of him. it’s stilted and it’s awkward and it’s this new azula that has been slowly growing from the ashes of the agni kai. he’s tearing up before he realizes it.

things feel a little more like normal when azula groans, “oh, don’t start that. i’ll never apologize for anything again. i just thought you should know that i don’t… i won’t do it again.”

zuko looks down at his hands. “thanks. i know you will, but unlucky for you, i haven’t felt that way about anyone since i was like, eleven.”

azula scoffs, but it isn’t hurt. “i would definitely have known. who? you didn’t have any fr- you didn’t. talk to many people. then.”

it hits him again how much she’s changing. “one of our tutors had a son my age. he and i would take lessons together.”

“oh.” azula says, and this time it’s like she’s solved the puzzle. “did he love you?”

zuko can’t help but smile. “i never asked. we barely counted as friends.”

“did mai love you?” azula asks in a way that says she really didn’t mean to ask out loud.

“not like you thought she did.” zuko says.

azula lowers her gaze as zuko raises his again. “hm.”

“you want to ask more.” zuko says, because he’s starting to figure out how to read her.

“did mai love ty lee?” she asks, her voice almost catching in a way that zuko hasn’t ever heard.

zuko doesn’t know the whole of it, but he knows enough to say, “not like you thought she did.”

azula doesn’t ask who ty lee loved or loves. instead, she says, “i’m done meditating.” and stands up to go inside. zuko lets her.

\---

zuko has asked and asked about it and never said anything to azula because he hasn’t gotten anywhere.

he’s always thought, maybe, she would bring it up, and in true azula fashion she says it out of nowhere one day when they’re eating lunch in the courtyard.

“i want to find our mother.”

he figures it’s probably a case of him being bad at reading people and not azula schooling her expression, but to him her tone is unreadable. zuko wishes anyone else was here to gauge her feelings so he knew what to say.

“well?” azula prompts. “are you going to agree? tell me i’m crazy? claim her for your own mission?”

“i’ve asked our father.” zuko says. “i didn’t want to tell you because he’s never given me any information.”

azula snorts into her bowl. “and why didn’t you think to ask me to talk to him?”

zuko blanches.

“ah. i get it.” she says, her voice a little curt.

“i’m sorry-” zuko begins.

azula cuts him off. “it makes sense. he certainly did a number on me before. i owe him one.”

they sit in silence, finishing their food. eventually, zuko says, “i think i should talk to your primary therapist first, but i would let you talk to him. if- if i could come along.”

“you don’t have to go with me.” she says. “i don’t need a babysitter, zuzu. i won’t kill him. i understand the political intricacies of the situation.”

zuko lets out a startled laugh. “i- i didn’t assume you would, no offense. seems a little, uh… kind. for what he did.”

“oh, no worries. you’re right.” azula shrugs. “so why do you want to come with me?”

the emotional vulnerability might just kill both of them, but he still says, “i worry about you. i don’t want you to be alone, especially with him.”

azula freezes up entirely, then scrunches up her face- an expression zuko hasn’t seen since they were much, much younger. she’s trying not to cry.

zuko puts his bowl down and shifts toward her, enough that she has space to flee if she wants to. he holds out an arm to offer a hug and her eyes narrow. he keeps his arm out and slowly, she leans into him.

he hugs his sister for the first time since he was eight. they both cry and neither of them say a word about it.

\---

aang wants to go to see ozai with them.

zuko knows why and he doesn’t like it, because this time he’s starting to think he does trust azula.

they argue over it, an advisor steps in and is ignored, and finally they fall silent when toph slams her foot into the ground and jostles both of them off their feet.

he isn’t even sure how toph feels about the situation, let alone any of the others. suki is here with her kyoshi warriors, which means ty lee is here too. they avoid zuko anytime he’s with azula, and he still hasn’t figured out if it’s for azula or ty lee’s sake. either way, they’re out of the question, which is why he and aang are still arguing.

zuko, still on the ground, scowls over at toph. “and what do you think we should do?”

“stop arguing.” toph says, kicking her feet back up. “she hasn’t tried to kill zuko yet, aang.”

“she’s  _ actually _ killed aang.” sokka points out, and zuko closes his eyes as he runs a hand over his face in frustration.

“look. i already got her to agree that we’ll travel with you guys if we find anything out. let me have this. don’t make this her first encounter with everyone since- you know!” zuko says, his voice cracking on the last word.

katara stands with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “zuko, why do you trust her now?”

“what, do you want a list?” he asks, and suki stifles a laugh. “i just- i do, alright?”

“zuko, how do we know she’s not just…” ty lee starts, and then stops. “you know, like before. manipulating.”

zuko resists the urge to run his hands through his hair in frustration, because it would undo his topknot and he hates tying it. “she’s just different. i know you don’t- obviously you don’t want to see her, you don’t ever have to, but she’s changed. you know, auras, or whatever, and you would feel a difference if even  _ i _ can tell.”

“he’s either being extra oblivious or he’s got a point.” sokka says.

“i’m not letting anyone go with us. that’s final.” zuko snaps. “guards will stand outside the cell door, and if the kyoshi warriors would like to take that role, they may volunteer now. there will be a chain of guards within sight of one another to the entrance of the building just like there always is, and there will be guards outside, just like there always are.”

toph raises an eyebrow in a way that seems almost impressed.

suki looks to ty lee. “you don’t have to come.”

“you probably shouldn’t. no offense, ty lee.” katara says.

“i’ll stay behind on this one.” she says, her voice unreadable in a way that’s similar to how azula’s can get sometimes. zuko wonders who learned it from who.

aang says, “i really still think i should-”

“aang, by decree of the firelord, you are not permitted to enter ozai’s prison cell the day that i visit him with my sister.” zuko says, his voice sharper than he likes to hear it.

the room stills. the air seems charged and suddenly zuko feels like he did the moment before he was struck with lightning.

sokka breaks the tension, and the relief that hits zuko like a wave is so genuine that zuko could kiss him. “alright, your fieriness, any other fancy shmancy royal rules to drop on us right now?”

aang fixes him with a look. it’s that thing he does- frustrated, but forgiving. it makes zuko feel like shit, so he looks away.

“i still want you guys to actually meet her again. whether we end up going to find our mother or not, anyone who would be going on the journey. i want you to see how she’s changed.”

“of course we will.” aang says.

\---

as azula steps into the cell first, suki gives her an almost inaudible, “good luck.”

the effect is immediate. as zuko falls in behind, one of suki’s hands clapping his shoulder with the same sentiment and then closing the door, he watches his sister. she straightens to her full height, and her shoulders come back and suddenly she seems even  _ taller _ than she has ever seemed before. she stands something like this when they train, but it isn’t the same. he isn’t sure why, but it isn’t.

she stares down her nose at their father. “father.” she says only a little drily.

“my dear azula.” he greets. “i thought you had forgotten me.”

“of course not. i only just received…” she throws a sneer over her shoulder toward zuko, who reminds himself they planned this. “ _ permission _ .”

ozai’s eyes slide over to zuko and grow a thousand degrees colder. “of course.”

“my…  _ dear _ brother and i have the same goal, and i know that you’ll help me.” she has the same glint in her eye that she always had before, when she was coming up with something to embarrass him, at first, or to hurt him, later. “because i’m sure you know that we want similar things.”

“azula.” zuko snaps. “know your place as a fire nation prisoner. you’re here to get the information we both require.”

“let me speak to father alone, then.”

there’s a flicker of doubt in his heart, even now, but he steels his resolve. he hesitates even longer and then finally says, “you have five minutes.”

he opens the door, and suki says loudly enough for ozai to hear, “the cooler is prepared.”

and the door shuts. the slats are closed and suki sticks the tail of her fan in the topmost one, just enough to give them the tiniest bit of sound. they listen.

azula tells it exactly like they planned. an infiltration plot, inspired by an assassination attempt that really  _ had _ happened just a few months earlier. azula tells him mai and ty lee have come back to her, and she says it so surely that zuko wonders how her heart isn’t breaking.

ozai tells her to lower her voice as she details the plan, and azula obeys.

eventually ozai responds so quietly that zuko can only hear the whisper of breath, not the words that come with.

they back up as azula thanks her father, letting the slat slide silently shut. zuko stands against the wall opposite the door, and suki stands guard like she had been.

the door opens. “well?” zuko asks, waiting for it to shut before he lets his expression fall.

azula nods. “i know enough, i think, brother.”

their years of childhood playmaking have paid off. they take off walking and azula holds together until they reach the exit. as her face feels fresh air she starts trembling, and zuko puts an arm around her to steady her, but she tears away. “don’t.”

he falls back and lets her take a few anxious, frenzied steps forward.

_ please no. please. _

she stops at the base of a wide-trunked tree and pounds her fist into it, her hands sizzling, smoke pouring from her palms. it’s the closest she’s come to firebending since the war. she had never broken that promise.

“it was easy!” she shouts to no one in particular. maybe to herself. 

zuko’s eye catches movement and he spots aang, a clearing away sitting in the boughs of a tree, holding his staff. he hopes the near-snarl he gives the airbender is a clear enough message to hold off.

“it felt so…  _ normal _ ! to be back with him!  _ saying _ things like that! they weren’t even real, none of it was!” she whirls around with her hands out, no longer smoking, and there are tears streaming down her face. “zuko, he  _ trusted _ me, the whole time! i could see it in his face. he told me our mother is alive, he told me that he sent her far away and eventually tried to kill her and she had disappeared. he even told me where she was from. he was so sure he could trust me. he thinks- he thinks that i’m still  _ his. _ ”

“well, are you?” suki says, from behind him.

before zuko can ask what she’s thinking, azula snaps, “of  _ course  _ i’m not, you-  _ ugh _ !”

her hands are in her hair, tangling in it in her frustration and her anxiety. “look at what he  _ did _ to me. look at what he- look at me!”

zuko wants to reach out, but he seems to have forgotten how. “azula…” he has so much he could say to relate, to reassure, but none of it seems right.

“you can… you can find mother without me. the one that loves me best is back in there, and i can’t take anything else.” she says, the energy draining from her. “i want to go to my room and i want to… someone bring me some parchment.”

“i will.” zuko says at the same time as suki asks, “what for?”

“i’m writing to uncle.”

there’s a silence, and zuko’s gaze flicks up again as aang disappears into the trees. “then we’ll send both letters with my hawk.”

\---

they end up going together. whatever uncle has to say when he comes to take his place as interim firelord sways her, because azula shows up at his door and demands that he and his ‘scheduling boy’ rework their plans to fit her as well.

“i prefer the idea guy.” sokka says smoothly, and if he’s anxious about seeing azula for the first time since the war, he doesn’t show it as she strides in.

“whatever. i’m coming with you.” she says, crossing her arms.

aang’s there, too, looking over zuko’s shoulder as he sits at the desk. he turns with wide eyes. “uh.”

“are you going to tell me no, avatar?” azula asks, her voice sharp.

“azula.” zuko reminds her.

“aang.” azula snaps.

sokka snorts.

“i mean, we already did agree you could come if we found out where to go.” aang says, slowly.

“excellent. zuko, have someone send me the details.” she says, spinning on her heel.

zuko says, “you know that… almost everyone’s going, right?”

“i know your little waterbending playmate will be there, yes.” she says, stopping in the doorway, turned away from them.

“i’d like you to meet everyone again, before we go.” he says.

“that’s fine with me.”

\---

it goes… surprisingly well. there’s tense silence between her and katara. toph must love all firebending teenagers on principle, because she takes to her so quickly that azula starts to warm up to her as well. she respects aang, for the most part. sokka starts explaining their route, and the general plan, and azula points out a quicker way to get somewhere, and that’s it- they actually get along.

despite the fact that she’s going to be staying behind to guard the palace with the rest of the kyoshi warriors, suki meets with everyone that day, too. azula remembers her from the day they went to the cell. there's a quiet sort of solidarity between them that zuko doesn’t understand.

they hang out like real teenagers a few times in the days leading up to it, and it’s the strangest thing zuko has ever experienced in his life.

eventually, they leave to find ursa. azula seems at ease on appa, to katara’s disappointment.

days of boring traveling go by and azula remains the outsider. zuko isn’t sure if she’s making it that way, or if they are.

they find ursa. she doesn’t wear the same face. she doesn’t remember them. a spirit tells them all of this as she repairs the face of a man who was attacked by the spirit’s own son. zuko wonders if that spirit misses his mother.

zuko and azula find her back at the very home they had been invited into before. the little family greets them, and azula says to the husband, “you know who we are.”

“let me tell her.” he asks, and azula’s face turns down to the food in front of her.

zuko isn’t sure he feels anything at all as he looks at this woman. she chose to forget them. she could have worn this face forever and still held them in her heart just as long, but she didn’t.

“i’m sorry. excuse me.” he says, standing up before the woman can respond. he hears azula shift, and hears the woman speak in a low voice. azula’s breath hitches and she probably needs zuko, now, but he’s about to fall apart.

he’s on his knees in the grass in front of the house for what seems like ages when azula comes out, her face blotchy and red.

“she told me that she’s sorry she didn’t love me enough.” azula says.

“she didn’t. she should be sorry.” zuko says, because it’s all he can think to say. he remembers his mother favoring him, and the pit of guilt in his stomach grows.

“do you want her back?” azula asks, after a long silence. “the spirit might do it.”

zuko thinks on it. “no, i don’t think i do.”

azula laughs bitterly. “me neither.”

\---

one sweltering day, zuko shows azula the dancing dragon. aang and katara sit to the side of the courtyard, watching idly as they eat their lunch.

he shows her the steps first, making her copy each one before he tells her anything about the form. “it’s ancient.” he begins.

“oh, so uncle invented this one, too?”

aang chokes on his rice and katara snickers.

“hush.” zuko says, smirking. “i was going to say we could use fire in this one.”

azula’s eyes light up, but it isn’t just excitement. there’s doubt. fear.

“if you want to.” he adds.

she nods. “i do. show me again.”

they run through the steps a probably hundred times before zuko finally says, “alright, we can throw some fire in. right at the end, bend it up with mine.”

the sun is burning down and zuko notes how azula’s hair is coming free of its topknot in a few places. he thinks about the younger version of her who would never have let anyone see her with a hair out of place.

he thinks she really is ready.

the steps carry them in an arc toward each other, until finally, their fists point at each other, and zuko angles them up just so to send fire spiraling above them.

azula’s hands barely even sizzle. she looks at him and he watches her eyes slide to his scarred one, then turn to her feet. she frowns, and falls to her knees, staring at her hands.

“zuko.” she says, her voice shaking. “it’s not working.”

he remembers, suddenly struck with that same fear of his father, the way he had said that to her when he was just five, and she was already sending smoke spirals up at age three.

“it’s gone.” she says, and now she’s shaking too.

aang stands up and zuko turns to him. he waves him off and watches him and katara grab their food and walk away.

he steps up to stand by his sister and offers her a hand. “come on.”

she looks up, her face overwhelmed with emotion.

he wiggles his hand in her face. “you need a break. and… there’s something i think you’re ready to see.”

she takes his hand and they leave the courtyard together.

\---

he trains the dancing dragon with her and tells her she’ll find out why, he promises, when they get to it.

they train every day the week leading up to the trip, even when zuko has meetings from dawn to dusk.

he knows azula well enough now to know that she still lies, just in different ways. he sees the way she drops to her knees on the sixth day and tells zuko that she’s tired, burnt out, done training, but he knows it’s what azula wants him to see. he can see beneath it the guilt, the fear and doubt in her expression she’s trying to hide.

they only do the dancing dragon once the last day, and then they leave in the most discreet ship they have, painted grey and nationless.

when they get there, zuko doesn’t need to explore like last time. he finds the sun warriors and tells them that there is a firebender in desperate need of a lesson.

“you were not to tell anyone about us.”

“i didn’t.”

azula’s somewhat uneasy expression must convince them, at least slightly, because the leader asks, “and how do you know she won’t tell?”

“i can vouch for her.” he says, and he means it. he doesn’t notice how azula’s expression brews with a thousand mixed emotions beside him.

she carries the fire in her hand, close to her heart, nurturing it like neither he nor aang could. he knows she has to go on her own, but he can’t help but wish he was by her side for it.

he trusts her, though. even without firebending, she still burns bright, but not like she did before. this time, she won’t burn herself out. he knows this.

ran and shaw spiral around her and he can see from here her terrified yet awed expression.

she performs the dancing dragon.

lively dragon fire swirls around her and he can’t see her but he knows how she must feel. he remembers feeling born again, with that new meaning displayed plainly to him.

the fire disperses.

she steps down and meets him and the sun warriors below.

“i understand it.”

something in him heals as he watches her doubtful gaze move up from her palms. and when she raises a hand above her head, experimentally, to test her own fire, it burns as multicolored and as beautiful as dragon fire.

she falls to her knees again, tears welling in her eyes. zuko wraps her in a hug and says, “i’m so glad.”

**Author's Note:**

> can you tell ive been emo about her and zuko's relationship lately?


End file.
